February 26, 2011

Yesterday, Meade and I confronted the protesters who'd taped things to the Veterans Memorial at the Wisconsin Capitol and piled up a lot of stuff around it. They promised us they'd get their things off of the memorial and away from it. We returned today, and here's how it looked (via fisheye lens):

The signs were off the memorial, but, as you can see, the junk was still piled against it, and Meade had a long talk with them — and the Capitol Police — about it. The protesters were very polite and circumspect, even as they fell back on the argument that they thought it was enough to take down the signs — and that they'd thought, yesterday, that it was enough to tape the signs only on the back of the monument. The assertion was made, as it was yesterday, that people can't tell from the back that it's a war monument. Quite aside from the fact that people are free to walk around the monument and see it from all sides, there is a bronze wreath embedded on the back. I asked one woman if she knew the symbolism of a wreath and I think she said she did.

Within a few minutes, the things were moved away from the base of the monument. There were lots of police around (as you can see if you click through to the enlargements), and they were keeping a strong and professional presence and were excellent at talking to us about the problem (though they didn't want to be videotaped speaking).

The respect Alhouse has for the memory of veterans is very commendable and is second only to the concern she has exhibited for their well-being, best exemplified by her swift, forthright and courageous response to revelations of the scandalous treatment of vets at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Highpoints are this, this and this.

Keep up the good work, Althouse, the vets know that you have their back!

12Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants and their customers. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the stalls of those selling doves. 13He said, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a place of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” Matthew 21:12-13

I'm feeling a little "come to Jesus" moment with the protesters at the war memorial and I'm thinking Meade as Jesus. Pictures at six and eleven.

There is no moral obligation to respect a war memorial or a gravesite.

Memorials, cemeteries, circumcisions, baptisms, confessions, communions, moments of silence and the like are religious or superstitious expressions and, as such, command no respect from non-believers. They should not be inflicted upon the public by government.

Ann and Meade make the mistake of thinking that a war memorial is not a religious expression simply because no mention of God is involved. This is a distortion of the meaning of religion, which from the beginning has referred more to practice and symbols than to faith or belief, as in "I exercise religiously."

Public establishment and honoring of war memorials is the kind of sheepish behavior that gets people into wars in the first place. Goebbels show us that a long time ago.

I wonder if these folks understand the meaning of "Hallowed Ground" and "Sacred" as it applies to Veterans Memorials and Patriots?

As for the trash left behind, they have no respect and, typically union, believe that they should leave the trash for the unionized trash collectors who are not to be deprived of the overtime they will collect cleaning it up on Sunday.

What you have presented to us not in attendance, bless your hearts, is a look into the soul of these eternal protestors who have as little respect for themselves as they do for the country they deface.

Thank you from a Naval Veteran -1966-1972. Your efforts to take responsibility and assign accountability to those in attendance is noted and appreciated. I presume these are the offspring of the parents who spit on and threw eggs at us returning Veterans when we returned home....to the disrespect you photographed.

Memorializing the men and women who gave their all to protect and safeguard our Constitution from those who threaten it is in the finest tradition of our country. You disrespect their service and devotion to an ideal larger than themselves.

What you are doing is taking your wonderful country for granted and biting the hand that feeds you. Your actions are indicative of a spoiled adolescent who will never grow up.

Shame on you and your disrespect for yourself and your country. You are one pitiful human being.

I do show disrespect for my country, especially when it comes to its continual warmongering. I will not stand for patriotic songs and pledges, and I can only take comfort that the Jesus, the Quakers, the Amish, the Mennonites, the Brethren, the Jehovah's Witnesses and many atheists agree with me.

I hope my 85-year old Dad does not decide to get "Jesus and the Moneylenders" on these selfish, clueless punks...for their sake.

And jimbino, I have less than zero respect for someone of NO faith who criticizes those who do. I see what you have learned from Goebbels, even if you do not. Godwin smiles.

BTW, "sheepish" is what you should be feeling, "sheep-like" is the word you want, as in "Atheists condemned the faithful in a sheep-like fashion, declaring that if they do not believe it, it should not be".